A coworker sent me a video of me in Albania trying to "speak Gen Z" to a group of 30 American students. I was a mess! They gave me a bunch of words they use to read out loud to the group. My job was to figure out what they meant.

They laughed and laughed. It was obvious that I was clueless. As a Boomer, I needed help in even communicating with them.

We Boomers are getting old and shaking our heads as we look at society. Social media and Covid did a number on Zoomers. We look at them and think, "Where's the capacity to commit? Where's the resilience?"

We created a mess

But hang on a second. Gen Z has grown up with the debris of our mistakes - social instability, climate anxiety, and mental-health crises. They are sensitive to and honest about pain in ways that we have not been.

We created this messy world they're inheriting. We're lonelier and more anxious than ever. We're up to our eyeballs in debt. Our leaders continually lie to us. AI is taking our jobs. What if Gen Z is responding to this and has something to teach us?

Community as a priority

Isolation kills the soul. I want to suggest to my Boomer buddies that Gen Z sees our loneliness epidemic (especially us older men) and places a high value on community.

They are creating micro-communities, seeking connection, and longing for authenticity. They don’t want the old model of “go it alone.” They value relationships and shared brokenness.

We Boomers, who often pride ourselves on self-reliance, could learn to admit loneliness and brokenness and let others in. Prioritizing community as they do, we could recover the laughter and connection that we've allowed the years to take from us.

Valuing rest

Gen Z also sees our workaholism and says, "Really? In this world of increasing abundance, why are we working so hard? Maybe there is more to life than climbing ladders and collecting achievements." They don't want to work harder for large houses and the mortgages behind them. Tiny homes may be enough when airbnb and greater travel opportunities are on offer.

Maybe Gen Z’s pushback against burnout and focus on rest, self-care, mental health is more than a cultural rebellion. Perhaps it is subconsciously a spiritual protest. In a world running on debt, broken promises and noise - to choose the value of rest might give us the pathway we need to reclaim our souls.

Boomers who built houses and companies and careers might need to learn that rest is not optional. It is sacred. Finding rest might even be a first step toward hearing God again.

Rather than dismissing their cries, maybe we should sit with them. Maybe we should let their brokenness break us. Maybe in that spacious grief we might find something like healing.

We who are older often suggest that young people apprentice to us, their elders. Maybe what we need is similar - maybe we need to apprentice to them and recover the values that gave spice to our life in our younger years.